


Scatter The Grace In Your Eyes

by sealdog



Category: Borderlands
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 20:15:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6391726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sealdog/pseuds/sealdog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Janey were a more fanciful kinda girl, the kind who would have folders in her locker with pictures of cute girls and hearts scribbled everywhere, she’d say that Athena’s gaze pierced right through Janey’s heart, stabbed right into it the same way that she’d once seen a kraggon bite through a scav’s calf. But Janey isn’t.</p><p>---</p><p>5 times Janey and Athena nearly went on a date + 1 time they actually (sorta) did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scatter The Grace In Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> I may have missed Femslash February, but at least I'm not late for Femslash Fmarch!!!
> 
> unbeta-ed, lmk if u find typos and shit

**Attempt 1:**

Janey’s doing her last rounds of the place, half-heartedly wiping the grease-stained counters and shelves with a rag that’s pretty much equally greasy, when there’s a familiar clattering at the doorway. Boots thumping, heavy cloth shifting against metal, and _yes_ , beneath the sounds of Claptrap’s protests and Nisha’s mocking laughter, she hears Athena’s voice, low and amused at whatever joke is no doubt being played at Claptrap’s expense.

Straightening up, Janey turns to face the doorway, grinning in anticipation.

“Well hey there! How’s that quest I sent you on going?” She leans forwards, frowning a little at—is that a scratch on Athena’s cheek? “You guys doin’ okay?”

“We’re fine,” Athena says, looking right at Janey in the way she always did. If Janey were a more fanciful kinda girl, the kind who would have folders in her locker with pictures of cute girls and hearts scribbled everywhere, she’d say that Athena’s gaze pierced right through Janey’s heart, stabbed right into it the same way that she’d once seen a kraggon bite through a scav’s calf. But Janey isn’t, so she just grins back at Athena.

“Really? Kinda got a little something on ya face, right there.” She gestures towards her own face.

“Oh, uh. Thanks.” Athena swipes at her face, which has turned the most _adorable_ shade of pink.

Behind Athena, Jack coughs, and says, “Guys, can we _please_ get to Nina’s soon? I think my insides might be bleeding out.” His voice cracks on that last bit, to Janey’s amusement.

There’s a muffled thump, and a choked off whimper from him, and then Nisha’s clearing her throat. “Athena, we’ll be at Nina’s. Nice to see you, Janey. You still owe me a drink.” She winks at Janey, lavender lips quirked in a lopsided smile, and ushers Jack and Claptrap back out, leaving Janey and Athena alone.

“It’s just you and me then, eh?” Janey smiles at Athena, telling herself to stay calm, play it cool, Springs.

“…Right. Uh.” Athena steps away, to Janey’s disappointment, and then takes a deep breath and one step forward, to Janey’s delight. “I was wondering if you…Um.” She coughs, turning even pinker. “Never mind. That mission you sent us on, we’ve finished it. I’m here for the reward…?”

Oh.

“…Right.” Janey says, turning behind to ostensibly get the moonstones she’d promised, but mostly to hide her disappointment. As she fumbles at the latch of the safe, she continues talking, keeping up a cheerful front. “That was really quick, you guys are real professionals, aren’t ya? I gotta say, it’s nice to have someone reliable around for a change, makes a girl feel—”

Whatever she’s about to say gets cut off by the door slamming open, and sudden gunfire.

Yelping, she spins back around to a standing position, grabbing her wrench off a shelf and holding it out at the ready.

Springs’ Emporium o’ Stuff isn’t exactly a tiny space, but it’s not huge either, and the main room is kinda cramped normally. A bunch of scavs shooting away is _definitely_ not normal, and right now it feels kind of very cramped and dangerous and oh holy god that ricocheting bullet was _way_ too close.

Janey ducks another bullet pinging off the grinder, and pops back up to try and look for— where was that gun of hers? She could’ve sworn she’d placed it on one of the shelves…Aha! There, next to the box of extra gears!

Keeping close to the walls for cover, Janey attempts to sneak over to the side while the scavs are still yelling and running around. God, she’d _just_ reorganized the place, too. So much for that. It never pays to be organized, is what her ma used to say. Who knew she’d be proved right by a scav attack?

A familiar shield, thudding into the wall right in front of her face, cuts off Janey’s panicked train of thought, as well as her movements.

“Sorry about that!” Athena darts by, grabbing the shield and spinning to toss it at a scav and felling him. She’s there to catch the shield on its rebound, and Janey watches in awe as she whips around to punch first one and then another scav in their noggins, and they collapse in unison.

The way Athena moves, fluid and forceful at the same time, is enthralling, and Janey can’t help but let her gaze linger in admiration, even as she reaches the place where her gun is and readies it.

“Bring it!” Athena yells, raising her shield at the remaining three scavs. One of them looks between Janey, who’s still fumbling with the catch on her stupid gun, and Athena, and turns to Janey.

Panicked, Janey flings the gun at him, only to yelp when it discharges and the scav’s head suddenly gets flung in multiple parts all over the shop. Ew.

The remaining scavs look at their comrade’s body, which is still standing somehow, and Athena, who’s advancing on them with her shield and gun ready. As one, they turn tail, and make to flee.

“Nuh uh, get back here!” Athena bounds out after them, and soon, Janey’s left to stand in an empty shop, blinking at the mess and more than slightly turned on at the display of competent violence she’d just witnessed.

\---

**Attempt 2:**

It takes about three tries before Janey manages to compose an echo that sounds casual enough, but also interested, but not _too_ interested, but also not too distant.

Okay, so it took more like 17 drafts, and a lot of whining at Nurse Nina (who is surprisingly sympathetic, if a bit brutally straightforward and very into the “Punch her in face and ask her! Nina _know_ it work” method, but by the end of it all, Janey has a carefully worded, subtle-but-not-too-subtle, super awesome echo log recorded in which she asks Athena if she’d like to go out for a drink someday. With absolutely zero mention of how hot it is when Athena beats the skagcrap out of people, because that’s apparently inappropriate.

Then, while deleting all the evidence of her failed attempts, she accidentally deletes her final echo along with the rest.

Which is when Janey gives up, and goes to Moxxi’s bar to have a drink instead.

\---

**Attempt 3:**

She’s on her third drink of the night, sitting next to the B4R-BOT and trying to ignore its attempts to make conversation, when Nisha’s voice catches her attention.

“Janey, get over here!”

When Janey turns, she sees Nisha, sitting at a table with Athena, a much healthier looking Jack, and the rest of the vault hunters.

Janey picks up her drink and happily abandons the B4R-BOT to go over. “Heya Nisha! And the rest of you,” Janey says, giving them a grin. She tries not to look at Athena more than the other, but her eyes are drawn to the way Athena has her hood down and is looking…well, not relaxed, but definitely not as tense as she normally is. It’s…distressingly cute, damn it.

“Is that the drink you owe me?” Nisha leans forwards, and plucks Janey’s glass out of her hands. She brings it up to her face, and takes a sniff before wrinkling her nose and shoving it back at Janey. “Eurgh, what is this crap? You need to get better taste in drinks, seriously.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll get you your drink,” Janey laughs, taking her glass back from Nisha and setting it down onto the table. “Whiskey, right?”

“Yep, you should get one for yourself, drink like a real adventurer for once.” Nisha winks at her, before turning back to the other vault hunters. “What’ll you guys have? Janey’s treat.”

The rest of the vault hunters call out their orders over Janey’s indignant protests, a cacophony of “beer!” “VODKA NEAT” “martini, thank you darling” and so on that leaves her more than a little dazed. Also fearing for the state of her wallet.

“Let me give you a hand with that,” Athena’s voice cuts through the yelling, and the smile she gives Janey is small and very private.

 _Play it cool_ , Janey tells herself. _Super cool. You’re a cryo weapon, Janey. Suuuuuper cool._

“That would be awesome,” she says, voice super cool and steady, and quirks a thumb back at the bar. “Shall we?”

They head over together, leaving the other vault hunters behind as an impromptu arm wrestling match starts up between Wilhelm and Nisha.

“So uh,” Athena says, once they’ve given their orders to Moxxi’s current barkeep, the latest in a line of claptraps that Moxxi’s been trying to tinker with to make actually useful. This one has a party hat on, and takes their long and very diverse order with a minimum of fuss, so Janey thinks it might work out longer than its predecessors.

“Sorry about the mess I made in your shop the other day.” Athena picks at the bar’s countertop, and slides a quick glance to Janey before looking back to where the other vault hunters are. She scowls at whatever she sees there, but before Janey can turn to see what it is, Athena clears her throat, and continues. “Hey, so um. We’re on a bit of a break between missions right now, and I was wondering—”

“What’s this I hear about you getting a whiskey for yourself?”

Janey whips her head around at Moxxi’s familiar dulcet tones. To her surprise, Moxxi herself is right there, hip cocked and a smile quirked on her red lips.

“M-moxxi?” Janey stutters, confused. “You’re usually…not here when I come. Or anywhere I am.” She frowns, recalling her (many) attempts to _coincidentally_ run into Moxxi.

“Heard you had a new paramour. Came to see the flames of love for myself,” Moxxi coos, and leans over the bar on crossed arms. It takes a mighty amount of effort for Janey to keep her eyes up, but she’s rewarded by a genuine smile for it.

“I uh…” Janey trails off, distracted by how damn _pretty_ Moxxi is.

“Put the order on my tab,” Athena cuts in, slamming a card down on the bar before stalking back to the other Vault Hunters.

Confused, Janey turns after her. “Wait, Athena—?” She was really sure Athena had been about to say something before Moxxi turned up, but going by the crossed arms and the frankly terrifying scowl she’s giving Jack, Athena’s not in the mood for casual conversation anymore.

“Oh. Oops.” Moxxi sighs, and pushes the card back to Janey with two fingers. “Give this back to Athena, and tell her the drinks are on me, as an apology.”

“Apology?” Janey frowns. “Didn’t know you two had much history.”

“Nope, we don’t.” Moxxi turns away, and starts pulling out mugs and bottles. “Go on back to your friends, I’ll have the B4R-BOT bring your drinks over. Good luck, Janey.”

“Wait, I feel like I’m missing out on something?” Janey says, _really_ confused now. “Good luck with what? And what paramour!”

Moxxi ignores her pointedly, and begins mixing up a martini. Scowling, Janey heads back, card in hand.

“Moxxi says the drinks are on her, as an apology,” she says as she hands the card back over to Athena, who looks surprised, but takes the card back. “So, who won?”

“Me.” Wilhelm rumbles, sounding very satisfied.

“Only because you _cheated_ with your prosthetics!” Nisha counters, and they strike up an argument that has the sound of one that’s been rehashed over and over before. Laughing, the other Vault Hunters join in, and the argument soon devolves into rowdiness, so Janey’s the only one who notices when Athena slips away and leaves first.

“Hey, Athena!” Janey hurries out after her, worried. “You alright?”

At the sound of her name, Athena turns. “Hm? Oh. Yeah.” Athena brings her hood back up, leaving her face in shadow. “Just gonna get some rest before we head out tomorrow, because _someone’s_ gonna have to be sober enough to drive.”

“Well…alright then,” Janey says, once again feeling like she’s missing out on something. “See you around, I guess? Have a good rest!”

“See you,” Athena nods, and turns away.

Janey stares after her for a long moment, before sighing and turning back to head inside. When she gets back, their drinks have arrived, and everybody’s settled into (marginally) quieter conversation, Wilhelm watching as Jack enthusiastically describes something with his hands, Nisha and Aurelia exchanging smirks over an indignant Claptrap.

“Hey, how’d it go with Athena?” Nisha looks up as Janey nears, and raises her glass at her. “Funny, you don’t look as happy as I thought you would. Did she not ask you out?”

“Wait, _what_?” Janey blurts out. “I didn’t- she was gonna- _what_?”

Across the table, Jack sighs, and slaps some money into Aurelia’s waiting hand. “Damnit, I really thought she’d finally get around to it,” he grumbles.

“What?!”

“Yeah, she said she was gonna try and ask you out on a date.” Nisha narrows her eyes at Janey speculatively. “Okay, so she didn’t. Why do you sound so surprised though?”

Janey splutters wordlessly in lieu of an answer. Because she doesn’t have any. Because Athena’s really cute, and Janey has been shamelessly hitting on her, and taking steps to ask her out, but it never actually occurred to her that Athena might feel the same way, for some reason.

“You should ask her out.” Nisha props her chin up on one fist, still watching Janey. “Because it’ll get this whole song and dance between you guys finally worked out. And also because I have ten bucks riding on you being the one to ask.”

“ _That’s_ cheating.” Wilhelm scowls, but backs down at Nisha’s glare.

Janey stares blankly at them, and at Nisha’s nudging, accepts the glass in front of her blindly. She takes a deep gulp of it, only to splutter at the burning taste and slam the glass back down, to Nisha’s amused cackle.

“Congrats Janey! That should give you enough liquid courage to ask her out tomorrow, eh?” Nisha claps her on the back, and the rest of the Vault Hunters cheer.

The rest of the night with the Vault Hunters goes by in a blur of rowdy jokes, comparison of new weapons, and more drinks.

(Janey switches back to her normal cranberry vodka. Nisha makes a _lot_ of judgey faces, but Nisha drinks whiskey neat, and therefore has no leg to stand on.)

Throughout the night, Janey only half pays attention to what’s going on, too distracted by the thought that Athena, badass, pretty, super adorable _Athena_ , might be feeling the same way that Janey does. When they all disperse for the night, shooed out of the bar by an indulgent Moxxi, Nisha pulls her in close, and whispers in Janey’s ear, “Seriously, ask her out.”

With a wink and a wave, she’s gone, disappeared round the corner with Wilhelm and the rest in tow. Janey walks the rest of the way home alone contemplatively, hope rising warm within her against the chill of the night air.

\---

**Attempt 4:**

Clearly, Janey needs to have A Plan to ask Athena out. An echo log was fine for past-Janey, who had hope going for her and little else. Present-Janey however, with her knowledge that Athena had been planning to ask her out, needs a better plan. Of course, it would be easy to just cop out and ask her casually, but deep down, Janey is a sucker for romance, and now that there’s even the slightest possibility of reciprocation, she wants to make sure their hypothetical-but-hopefully-soon-to-be-real relationship start off with a bang.

So: a courting present. And it has to be _perfect_.

Janey spends several days scrounging up material from Crazy Earl’s scrapyard, with his blessing (at least, she _thinks_ its his blessing. Earl gets garbled when excited, and Janey going to choose to believe that he’s excited for her, alright?), and then sweet talking Ellie from down on Pandora to send up more material from her garage.

She spends the next three days working on her project. It’s a customized Stingray, with the front laser shifted higher up to accommodate an extra thruster beneath, which put together with the heavily modded original thrusters _should_ give one heck of an added boost. Also, the turret on the back now has a little speaker that plays a trumpet sound whenever the Stingray slams down. Okay, so the trumpet sound can be changed to anything Athena wants, but Janey hopes Athena doesn’t change it, because trumpet sounds are _awesome_.

So she’s elbows deep in the skeleton of an old Atlas class-B singleship Ellie sent up, digging out the reaction engine to salvage into the new thruster, when there’s a knock on her office door, and Athena pops her head in.

“Hey Janey, the Vault Hunters and I are gonna head out, so I came by to…” Athena trails off, eyes fixed on the singleship on Janey’s desk.

“Oh, Athena!” Janey straightens up, and smiles at her. “Looking very badass, as usual. Uh, actually, you feeling alright, Athena? You’re kinda looking a little bit…ragey…?”

“I have to go.” Athena says, very abruptly, before turning on her heel and leaving.

Janey darts out after her, confused. “Athena? Is everything okay?” She calls out, but Athena’s retreating back gets further and further away, until she reaches the fast-travel station, and the angry line of her back dissipates into digistruct code.

Confused, Janey heads back into her shop, and stares around at her office, wondering why Athena suddenly left. Was it something Janey did? Was there something on her face?

Patting her own face in a futile attempt to see if there’s anything there (there isn’t, although Janey isn’t ruling out the possibility that there’s drool or something all over that she can’t feel), Janey heads out and over to the Up Over bar.

When she gets there, the B4R-BOT helpfully points her over to the mirror hidden in one of the lockers. Janey isn’t really surprised when she doesn't find anything unusual on her face, but it leaves her feeling more confused than ever.

“Hey,” Moxxi’s voice catches Janey’s attention, and she turns to see Moxxi herself, leaning over the bar where she very definitely had not been earlier. “Why so glum, sugar plum?”

Sighing, Janey heads over, and plops onto one of the stools there, folding her arms and dropping her head onto them. “I think I made Athena mad, somehow,” she says, only to have to lift her head and repeat herself when Moxxi clears her throat pointedly.

“Really? Last I heard, you were both all agog over each other.” Moxxi says, in a tone that’s either really sarcastic, or really sincere, Janey doesn’t have the energy to parse right now.

“Exactly! And then today, she dropped by, and I didn’t have time to cover up the present I was working on for her before she got all quiet and angry and left before I could even say anything. Weird, right?” Janey frowns, confused all over again by the entire thing.

“Ooh, a present!” Moxxi’s eyes brighten, and she clasps her hands together, fitting them under her chin and eyeing Janey speculatively. “What was it?”

“A customized Stingray, off that design of yours that Dahl nicked. I got Ellie to send up some stuff- oh, she says hi, by the way,” Janey adds.

“Mm.” Moxxi hums disapprovingly. “She still refusing to come up?”

Janey holds her hands up warily. “Sorry, Moxxi, you’re gonna have to ask her that yourself.” She weathers Moxxi’s glare and pout with ease, recalling the pride in Ellie’s voice when she talked about her garage. Still, it’s a relief when Moxxi harrumphs, and looks away, because Janey is so weak to a pretty face, so so weak.

“Fine.” Moxxi rolls her eyes, and turns away. “So, you were saying something about a present?”

“Yeah, I was just taking out the reaction engine to this class-B singleship Ellie sent up when Athena came in. Does Athena have something against mechanics? I feel like that might be a problem,” Janey says morosely. “What with me being a mechanic and all. I mean, I guess I could always close down the junkshop and go into that whole writing children’s books things, but that feels kinda drastic, and—”

“Wait wait wait, hold on a minute,” Moxxi waves her hands to stem Janey’s rambling, and Janey shuts her mouth with relief. “Class-B singleship? Atlas was the only company that made singleships past class-A.”

Janey raises her eyebrows at Moxxi quizzically, not sure why that would matter.

“Janey, sweetheart…” Moxxi’s voice is very gentle, which is…kinda weird, and something seems to drop in the pit of Janey’s stomach.

Three hours later, Janey digistructs out of the fast-travel station in Outlands Canyon, and tumbles headfirst right into Wilhelm’s chest.

“Oof!” Wilhelm grunts, but his hands are steady enough when they come up to steady Janey.

“Sorry Wilhelm!” Janey says breathlessly, and turns around to look for- there! “Athena! I need to talk to you, um. In private, please?”

Athena, covered somewhat in blood and moondust, raises an eyebrow, but she seems to be in a more receptive mood now, possibly because of the fighting and killing things, and she jerks her head over to the side. Nisha, somehow even _more_ blood splattered than Athena is, looks between the two of them before turning a wild grin and two thumbs up to Janey. Embarrassed, Janey avoids Nisha’s gaze, but Nisha’s soft cackle as she herds the other Vault Hunters off to the fast-travel machine is harder to pretend not to hear.

“What is it?” Athena’s measured tone brings Janey back to the topic at hand.

Taking a deep breath, Janey gets right into it. “Okay, so when you walked in earlier, I think there might have been a bit of a misunderstanding. I mean, I didn’t realize you had a thing against Atlas, but I should have asked around and stuff- but I don’t normally work with Atlas stuff anyway! I was just- oh god okay look, follow me, I promise this’ll make sense.”

Athena eyes Janey suspiciously, but sighs and uncrosses her arms to follow readily enough. Letting out a sigh of her own, Janey heads off towards the nearest Moon Zoomy station, keeping an ear out for the sound of Athena’s footsteps behind her.

When they get there, Janey hastens to digistruct the Stingray she’d customized for Athena. It appears with the familiar sound of screeching tires, and Janey turns to Athena with trepidation and hope catching in her breath.

“Is this…” Athena trails off, and steps forward to run a hand down the side of the Stingray, which is sleeker and more streamlined than the default, and red and black with white accents. Janey had painted it with Athena’s shield in mind.

“I was using the Atlas singleship for spare parts, but Moxxi told me about your…history, I am _so_ sorry by the way.” Janey reaches forwards and pats Athena’s shoulder tentatively. Athena, turned away from Janey, doesn’t respond, but the line of her shoulders relaxes a little. “Anyway, I got the spare engine from another ship, Dahl, don’t worry. There _is_ something Atlas in the ship though, but I think you’ll approve.”

Janey walks around to the other side of the ship, and hunkers down, indicating that Athena should too, which she does. Janey lifts the Stingray up enough to show Athena the underside of it.

“Oh. That’s…” Athena huffs out a short chuckle of laughter, and when Janey looks across the underside of the Stingray to Athena, she’s caught off guard by Athena’s expression.

Athena’s normally serious expression is softened, the faint frown lines between her brows smoothened out. Even as Janey watches, the corners of Athena’s eyes crinkle slightly, and her lips quirk up.

Janey looks away, and coughs. “So, um yeah. I placed the Atlas logo on the underside, and now every time you slam, you’ll be slamming that logo into the ground. Thought you might like that.”

Athena stands up abruptly, and startled, Janey does so too.

“I love it,” Athena says, very seriously, eyes fixed on Janey’s.

Unable to keep eye contact with Athena’s intensity, Janey looks down at the Stingray, and pets it absently. “Also, you’re not under any obligation or anything, the Stingray’s all yours no strings attached, but I was hoping, if you’re free this Friday, would you—”

“Yes!” Athena blurts out, before flushing a truly adorable shade of pink.

“I could have finished that sentence with something truly horrible, you know.” Janey points out, grinning helplessly at Athena, who’s smiling back in a way that makes Janey feel like there’s something warm spreading throughout her chest. “But nah, I’m thinking steaks down on level 12 at 7?”

Athena reaches down to pet the Stingray too, and Janey watches, frozen, as Athena’s gloved hand comes _really close_ to touching Janey’s. She’s broken out of her reverie by Athena’s voice.

“Steak sounds good. I’m looking forward to it.”

When Janey looks back up, Athena’s watching her, not smiling anymore, but with something soft in her eyes.

“It’s a date, then?”

Okay, so Janey hadn’t meant to turn that into a question. So she’s relieved when Athena immediately answers.

“It’s a date.”

\---

**Attempt 5:**

Janey waits for Athena at their agreed upon meeting place, nerves making her jittery as she checks and rechecks to make sure her clothes and hair are clean and neat. Nina had advised against wearing any special outfit for steaks, so Janey’s in a cleaner and slightly nicer version of her normal outfit, grease stains cleaned off and patches carefully repatched.

She’s early, because otherwise she would just have been spending the next half hour or so pacing in her room anxiously. As it is, now she’s pacing around the corridor outside the steakhouse, and regretting her decision to come down early, because at least there would be nobody around to witness her pacing around at home. She’s contemplates the pros and cons of walking home and turning right around to come back here because home is 10 minutes away and it’s…Janey checks her watch. Exactly 27 minutes till the time she and Athena agreed to meet.

Just as she’s made the decision to walk home and back again, Athena walks round the corner, and catches sight of Janey.

“Athena!” Janey blinks, caught by surprise. “You’re early.”

“So are you,” Athena counters, but she’s doing that thing with her eyes again, where it’s kinda like she’s smiling, but not actually smiling, but its better than smiling, and oh my god Janey say something!!

“You look nice,” Janey blurts out, before she can stop her mouth. She doesn't know why she said that; Athena is wearing her usual outfit, except that her hood is down. Well, it’s not technically wrong, because Athena _always_ looks nice.

A tiny frown line appears between Athena’s eyebrows. “I didn’t wear anything different,” she says, sounding confused.

“No- no I meant, you always look nice. Just felt like saying it then.” Janey laughs weakly.

“Oh, uh. Thanks?” Athena tilts her head. “You look nice too. Kinda miss the grease stains though.”

“Really?” Janey laughs again, this time more genuinely. “I’ll make sure to leave them on next time.”

“Next time, then.” Athena sounds satisfied, and Janey wonders why.

Wait.

Oh. Right.

Tamping down the gleeful inner voice that’s currently screaming “next time!” over and over, Janey jerks a thumb over to the entrance of the steakhouse. “Shall we?”

“Lead the way.”

They head in, and get to a nice table, where Athena promptly pulls out Janey’s seat for her, before getting into the other seat. It doesn’t escape Janey’s notice that Athena’s seat is against the wall, and has a good view of both the front and back entrances to the steakhouse. Old habits die hard, probably.

The steakhouse is a pretty straightforward place: the only food they serve is steak. Janey and Athena both get the specialty, skag steaks that the menu promises will be charred to perfection, and cryo-vine wine that’s supposed to go really well with it. Then they’re sitting there, facing each other, with the sounds of the bustling steakhouse noisy around them.

It’s a little bit awkward, Janey has to admit it, but it’s also…nice? Okay, _really_ nice. This close, she can see that Athena’s pale blue eyes have tiny little flecks of darker blue in them.

Janey’s always had a thing for blue eyes.

“Have you eaten here before?” Janey asks eventually, when Athena seems content with making sporadic eye contact before flicking her gaze off to survey the room and then coming back to look at Janey for a bit before starting the whole thing up again.

Athena shakes her head. “No, I’ve never been to Elpis before this whole vault hunting business. And then we never really had the time, so.” There’s a long awkward pause where Janey nods and tries to think of something to say, and then Athena continues. “You?”

“Oh, uh. A coupla times, a few years back, with Nina. She’s got some kinda hot romance going on with the owner.” Janey wrinkles her nose. “I think. It’s hard to tell if they’re flirting with each other or threatening each other sometimes. Haven’t seen him around in a bit, wonder what happened to him.” She sits up and peers around the place, but the only staff members in sight are the bartender and cashier.

Athena props her chin up on her fist, and watches Janey, the weight of her gaze heavy and assessing. “Lil Scav? Kinda intense looking?

“Yeah!” Janey says, surprised. “You know him?”

Athena snorts. “Yeah they’re together. We helped Nina court him a couple days back. Had to set him on fire to get them to admit their love for each other. Last I heard, he’s been hanging in Nina’s office. Like, literally hanging, from the ceiling.”

They both pause to contemplate that, and then Athena starts snickering, and that sets Janey off. It’s not even like Athena had just told a particularly funny joke or anything, Janey’s just so relieved that they’re having a _conversation_ , one that isn’t super awkward, and it bubbles out of her in giggles or something. And she couldn’t even begin to guess why Athena’s laughing.

When their steaks arrived, carried by a sullen-faced waiter who grunts incoherently as he sets the plates down, they’re still laughing. Janey has to take a deep breath and hold it before she can thank the waiter, who merely grunts again before stalking off.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Athena reaches out, and pushes Janey’s plate towards her. “We should eat,” she says, still smiling.

Janey smiles back helplessly, caught up in the softness of Athena’s gaze and the memory of how Athena’s laugh sounds, and picks up her fork and knife.

They settle down to eating, but she’s barely managed to cut a slice off her steak when Wilhelm suddenly bursts into the restaurant, looks around, spots Athena, and sprints towards them.

“Gotta go.” He mutters, barely sounding apologetic, before reaching down and grabbing Athena up.

“Wait-” Athena doesn’t even have time to finish her question before she’s hoisted over Wilhelm’s shoulder, and carted out of the place.

Janey’s left sitting at their table with their steaks in front of her, thoroughly and completely befuddled, and more than a little disappointed.

\---

**Date 1/?**

Nobody hears from the Vault Hunters for days, and Janey goes through a whirlwind of being indignant, then worried, then angry, then bitter, and then worried again. She throws herself into work to distract herself, taking on odd jobs from Earl and Moxxi when it turns out that owning a junkshop really isn’t all that great for when you want to throw yourself into work.

So imagine her surprise when, one day, Janey trudges home after an exhausting day out in the Triton Flats hunting for a seashell Earl insists is there (she still hasn’t found it) only to find Athena sitting on her doorstep.

“Athena!” Janey stops and stares in complete surprise.

Athena bolts upright, revealing a large paper bag sitting beside her. “I uh. Sorry about disappearing. We had an urgent mission.”

“Nah, I figured,” Janey says drily. “Do you wanna come in? It’s kinda cold to be sitting out, innit?” She moves past Athena to unlock the door, suddenly really self-conscious about how dusty and grimy she is.

“It’s okay, I just came to apologize and- here, this is for you.” Athena picks the bag up and thrusts it at Janey. “Skag kebabs from Pandora. You should eat them while they’re hot.”

Janey takes the bag, and sniffs at it, humming happily at the delicious smells wafting up.

“Okay, I should…go.” Athena mumbles, before stepping back. When had she come so close? Why was she leaving?

“Wait!” Janey calls out. It’s gratifying how quickly Athena turns back. “This is a pretty big bag. Would be nice to share it with someone.” She raises her eyebrows meaningfully at Athena, and watches in delight as Athena blushes.

Then Athena steps close again, and it’s Janey’s turn to feel flustered.

“Gladly,” Athena says, and leans in close. Janey holds her breath, and closes her eyes in anticipation.

Only to let out a breath of disappointment when she feels Athena take the bag from her arms.

When she opens her eyes again, Athena’s still there, still standing really close, and smiling at Janey with what Janey hopes is fondness and not this-person-is-an-idiot-ness.

“May I?” Athena says.

“Huh? You already took the bags from- oh. _Oh_. Oh my god!” Janey gives in to the impulse, and rolls her eyes before pulling Athena forward the last few inches and into a kiss.

Athena’s lips are slightly chapped, but the shape of them as she laughs into Janey’s mouth is something Janey wants to etch into her memory for ever and ever. In fact, everything about this kiss, Janey wants to keep. The way Athena’s hand, the one not holding the bag, goes to Janey’s waist to pull her in, her glove rough and solid against the bare skin there. The way Athena tilts her head up, and the way her body fits against Janey’s.

They break apart after what feels like way too short and way too long at the same time, and the incredibly sappy grin on Athena’s face is probably mirrored on Janey’s own face too, going by the way her cheeks are aching.

“Shall we go in?” Athena asks, breath warm against Janey’s cheek in contrast to the cold night air.

“ _Yes_ , definitely, we should very much go in.” Janey fumbles for her keys before remembering that they’re already in the lock from earlier. She unlocks the door, and gestures Athena in. “Hey, so if I bring you home for the date, does it count as more of a date, or more of me bringing you home after the first date?”

“We already _had_ our first date, at the steakhouse, remember?” Athena points out.

Janey waves it off. “Well, yeah, but that was interrupted! I’m talking _real_ date, like a proper one and all.”

“Well, we can sit here and figure it out, or we could eat the kebabs, and then you can ‘take me home’ in the more conventional sense of the phrase.” Athena takes a kebab out from the bag, and gestures at Janey with it.

Janey takes the time to thank her lucky stars, and then she’s pulling the kebab out of Athena’s hand and shoving it back into the bag so she can kiss Athena some more, because screw date conventions, kissing Athena’s laughter out of her is _way_ more important.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't remember if the NPCs in TPS know that Timothy is Jack's doppelganger or not, so I just went with the assumption that they all think he's Jack, because if everybody knew he wasn't Jack then the whole point of Jack having a doppelganger is kinda moot innit?
> 
> Also I had to waffle around a bit with mission timings and stuff. Just pretend Janey gives them a mission later in the game that has moonstones as a reward. And that the Vault Hunters split up when they're not doing missions or something.


End file.
